I remember very well in 1986 when James M. Buchanan won the Nobel Prize in Economics. I was in college -- majoring in economics -- and a friend asked me about Buchanan's research. I summarized it by saying that "when politicians make decisions about economic policies, they worry about being re-elected." When my friend asked about previous winners, I noted that the 1985 winner, Franco Modigliani had formulated the life-cycle hypothesis, which explains why people would save money during their work...